Hitting the headlines without hitting your pocket

Small businesses know the value of getting themselves seen by customers and potential customers on their doorstep.

But what many of them don’t realise is that good PR doesn’t have to cost the earth and can deliver amazing results.

That’s precisely what we’ve been doing through our work with the UK-wide Good Garage Scheme www.goodgaragescheme.com by creating template press releases for new members which are adapted to target their specific region.

The Good Garage Scheme, a self-regulatory body aimed at maintaining standards in the independent garage and workshop sector, attracts around 70 or 80 new members a month.

While not a bespoke service, our press release templates are customised for each new member, potentially saving them hundreds of pounds while adding more value to their membership.

The feedback we’re from the garages is that they’re really excited about the profile or potential profile they are getting in their core local and regional media.

Alongside a host of other benefits like a free design service, free legal advices and discounted insurance, national and local radio and TV advertising www.ggsbenefits.co.uk, it really is a cost-effective win, win situation for independent garages and workshops with limited marketing budgets.

The level of support offered through the Good Garage Scheme is second to none and we are delighted to be playing our part at Bridge PR in helping the independents gain the most competitive edge possible in their local and regional media without breaking the bank.

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Social media and PR – evolution and revolution

Digital and social media are turning how we access our news on its head and I’m often asked is it a PR evolution or revolution.

The simple answer is it’s both. Digital and social media’s interactive nature is having a huge impact on the way news is delivered and in online advertising.

Many newspapers are finding this out the hard way at the moment but many businesses are embracing the digital age as they look to new and cost-effective ways to market themselves.

At a recent presentation I delivered to 38 SMEs on the importance of a digital presence, I was surprised at how many start-ups had already started to use social media as a cost-effective marketing tool.

They are already using the likes of Twitter and Linked In to great effect – something which we at Bridge PR have long been advocates of.

So yes, the revolution has started as SMEs evolve their marketing approaches. By defining their marketing mix, which includes social media, digital PR, traditional PR and search engine optimisation, businesses, however small can make real inroads in creating their brand identity and raising their profile.

Many have made a start and our aim at Bridge PR, as one of the of the forerunners in helping businesses with new media and new media training, is to help them make the most of these new marketing tools which can give them a more competitive edge without breaking the bank.

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Coventry communications firm helps SMEs in digital age

A host of new Coventry and Warwickshire SMEs have been finding out how social media can help kick-start their businesses.

 Around 40 start-up businesses from the region attended a presentation from experts at Coventry-based Bridge PR on building their digital presence to help succeed.

 The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber-backed event at the Brooklands Grange Hotel, Holyhead Road, heard from Bridge PR’s commercial director Denise Taylor how social and digital media tools could help build their brand identity and raise their profile.

 “Digital and social media are turning how we access news on its head and companies need to look at how they fit these tools into their overall marketing strategies to create their brand indentities and raise their profile.

 “Bridge PR is one of the forerunners in helping businesses with new media and new media training and delegates at our event heard how they could use social media tools cost-effectively to their best advantage.”

 Gary Lillistone, managing director of Bridge PR, said: “It was surprising to here that a lot of start-ups are already tentatively using these new media marketing tools. Our aim is to help them refine how they use these tools to their advantage to give them a competitive edge in what is still a challenging trading climate.”

‘Everyone’s a journalist’

 PR is changing. No longer is it a world where our sole aim is to influence journalists and editors of key media.

 Social media and the internet is rapidly gathering momentum. Suddenly everyone has become a journalist, everyone has a voice in cyberspace and the potential to influence consumer decisions.

 And that is precisely where Bridge PR is focussing a lot of attention. A recent example has been our work with the Good Garage Scheme and its ‘well oiled’ campaign which has taken up residence on the home pages of a number of key industry websites.

 The press release wasn’t issued to them but what excites me about this is that it perfectly illustrates how the world of PR is changing. If the article is not specific and more generic you have the potential for it to be picked up by websites and bloggers surfing the internet for quality material to populate their sites.

 In this case, the generic advice to motorists was the key to its success. The campaign aligned itself perfectly to associated industries and their respective websites.

 The potential there is clear to see and it’s the potential to influence not just tens of thousands of readers but hundreds of thousands and even millions. While the journalists and editors remain crucial to our industry and shouldn’t be cast aside, they no longer have the monopoly on influence and the generic approach has the potential to reach millions and what price can you put on that?

Digital age Marketing Mission

New customers are the lifeblood of small and medium-sized companies but staggeringly nearly half don’t know how to market themselves effectively.

The Barclays Local Business Survey, launched with The Times earlier this year, revealed that 44 per cent of the survey’s 3,675 respondents said marketing was the skill most lacking in their business.

And that can cause a major problem for SMEs struggling to survive and claw their way out of the recession. So where do they turn for cost-effective help to get themselves noticed by the widest possible audience?

Our approach at Bridge PR goes beyond the traditional realms of public relations, using the most sophisticated tools to help clients maximise their potential. As is often the case, keeping up with, and keeping on top of technology achieves the best results.

Digital marketing is emerging as an increasingly important tool across a range of industry sectors, with the internet opening up host of opportunities for business owners to access wider markets. Bridge PR is leading the way in helping clients nurture social media and digital marketing to get noticed.

With our expertise and as an established member of Business Link, we are ideally placed to provide information on funding opportunities available to companies to market themselves better in the digital world.

Business Link’s Director Development Programme (DDP) is awarding £500 to firms with five or more employees (but it’s up to a total of £1500 if you put in £500) and we are providing PR and Social Media courses and strategic plans for directors to develop their businesses.

Through our courses, we are helping even the smallest companies embrace the internet and tap into new opportunities.

With more than 70 per cent of the UK population now online and spending an average of 33 hours a month surfing the internet, the opportunities for business are clear and Bridge PR is ideally placed to help SMEs seize them and emerge stronger from the recession.

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Viral Marketing Success

Embracing new ways of marketing yourself is often the key to developing your business and we have established ourselves in helping clients succeed in the digital age.

For the last six months we have been helping client K3 Business Technology deliver its hugely successful viral marketing campaign called ‘The Factory’.

Since February, online viewers have followed the exploits of bungling boss David and his epic nationwide tour of SYSPRO customers to find the perfect ERP system.

Bridge PR has been promoting the innovative campaign through both traditional and online PR channels to maximise K3’s exposure to the widest market possible. ‘The Factory’ has introduced a fun element into the serious message of how businesses can use SYSPRO ERP to operate more efficiently.

By combining traditional and online PR, we’ve helped ‘The Factory’ become a runaway hit with online viewers. It’s been a hugely satisfying project to be involved with and fine tuned our skills in using social media and digital marketing techniques to help our clients reach the biggest possible audience.

The market has been changing rapidly with digital media leaving PR and marketing communications in its wake. Our experience of working with K3 has put us in the driving seat to help our clients use the latest tools to maximise business opportunities and position Bridge as a leading provider of digital media solutions.

Episodes of The Factory series can be found at: http://www.k3scs.com/thefactory

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Funding for Training

Bridge PR is well estbalished with Business Link and at the forefront of providing information on funding opportunities for the many companies that we know.

The latest fund is the Director Development Programme (DDP) which is awarding £500 to firms with five or more employees. We are currently providing PR and Social Media courses and strategic plans for directors to evolve and debelop their businesses.

If you would like to know more about taking advantage of DDP funding, please contact Gary Lillistone or Denise Taylor

Rebecca’s Appointment

We are delighted that Rebecca Dunn-Morgan has joined our team as Senior Administrator.  Rebecca or Reb has come from the highly demanding luxury hotel industry and will put her skills to work on improving our procedures for quality controlling the issuing of press releases to a wide range of press and media.  

One of her major tasks will be to look after the customising, approval and distribution of press releases announcing each new Good Garage Scheme new member to their local press. The Good Garage Scheme takes on some 55 new member garages every month and it is our job to ensure they are promoted to their local customers.

Reb will also play a major part in our activities to promote clients through new media outlets such as Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In etc.

Bridge PR Expands into New Offices

At the end of June beginning of July, Bridge PR  moved into new offices as part of our expansion programme, and we’re now just about settled in.  As well as having lots more space to employ more staff, we have also changed our IT and telephone systems, bringing us right into the 21st century with cloud computing.  In brief, all our data is now offsite, and our communications work through VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol).  So far so good, and central and remote access to all our data has proved a real boon for our business. 

Our new address and contact details are:

Bridge PR Limited
Faraday House
Electric Wharf
Coventry
CV1 4JF
Tel: 024 7652 0025

Piggybacking PR stories

Forte's air conditioner treatment

One of the most effective ways of adding strength to a press release is to look at a national news story that relates to a product or service you are looking to promote.

This is known as ‘piggybacking’ and will very often beef up your own press release and make it more attractive to journalists in the trade sector and give it that added edge in gaining press coverage.

When researching, writing and issuing press releases we PRs are constantly looking for an edge to make the release look as attractive as possible. We do this by thinking of a good news angle, making it relevant to the readership and writing it in a style that can be easily edited by a newspaper or magazine.

 As an example, we work for a local Coventry company that produces an air conditioner treatment to get rid of fungi and nasty smells from vehicle air con systems. We have thought of just about every angle to push the treatment and then we spot a story about German scientists who have discovered motorists are healthier if they use their vehicle’s air con systems, rather than breath in polluted air from outside.

 This gave us the edge we needed to draft a release covering the scientist’s findings and the necessity to keep air con systems in tip top condition using my client’s treatment. job done!